Developing Excellent Students

Committed to Engaging with Their Local Communities

A Millennial Impact Project by New Jersey Campus Compact

changebuilder mission

New Jersey Campus Compact (NJCC) and our partners are embarking on our most ambitious shared task yet – to support literally thousands of college-going millennials capable of demonstrating excellence while engaging with and volunteering in communities, thereby enabling them to make a difference in their local communities as Changebuilders. This will see a surge in the overall number of young socially responsible graduates with the skills required to be successful – both in achieving their own life goals and in their efforts to be part of change for the better. 

The Changebuilders mission is designed to
achieve the following outcomes at minimum:

01.

Develop sequences of community engagement opportunities

in support of over 3,000 students’ educational experience so as to deepen knowledge of and commitment to local community issues, including those who intend to transfer from partnering community colleges to baccalaureate
institutions.

02.

Increase employability by developing 21st century workplace skills

through high quality community engagement sequences of experiences. These local experiences will also contribute to thousands of millennial Changebuilders staying in New Jersey upon graduation and supporting the economy

03.

Increase student retention by offering a greater range of community engagement experiences and partnerships with community colleges and baccalaureate institutions.

This will also improve positive transfer pathways for a more diverse population of student volunteers

04.

Significantly increase overall college student community engagement in New Jersey

We will grow the number of community engaged students each year by over 500 annually, ultimately helping to develop thousands of engaged citizens ready to graduate and address pressing local community issues such as education equality, family health choice, and meaningful career opportunity

05.

Ensure that a significant number of nonprofits and community service agencies increase their capacity

to develop and deliver impactful services and programs for populations struggling at the margins of society. Efforts will include college access and success, educational equality, access to healthy lifestyle options, alcohol and substance abuse reduction, and neighborhood safety

CHangebuilders Project Overview
CHangebuilders Leadership pathway

New Jersey Campus Compact (NJCC) is managing Changebuilders as an AmeriCorps project whereby funding comes from Americorps to help support the coordinator living allowances. We will target a total of 10 partner institutions in 2018 with preference given to programs that show a commitment to developing civic transfer pathways and 2-year/4- year engagement cohorts between community colleges and baccalaureate institutions, as follows:

Community College – Baccalaureate Partnerships:

Civic engagement cohorts and civic transfer pathways enhance the ways in which civic engagement is helping to level the opportunity playing field for college students.

• Civic Engagement Cohorts - Defined as groups of civically engaged students from neighboring 2-year and 4-year higher education institutions working side by side as issue action teams.

• Civic Transfer Pathways - Defined as a strategy for encouraging transfer students’ academic persistence and excellence through civic engagement. Actions associated with this strategy include:

- Tracking student community-based experiences while gaining an Associates Degree (for example through academic transcripts)


- Articulating the pathways through which these experiences will be recognized while gaining a Bachelors or equivalent degree (for example through removing disciplinary and course prerequisites; counting experiences in ePortfolios)

To learn more, to partner, or to support us, contact Dr. Saul Petersen, the architect of Changebuilders at engagednj@njcampuscompact.org